'So You Think You Can Dance': Pasadena call-backs produce tears, cheers, Top 20

By Jacquie OliveriusCorrespondent

Posted:
06/26/2014 02:12:22 AM MDT

Through four weeks of auditions in five cities, the reward was a ticket to the "L.A. call-backs." This was especially confusing when one of the auditions was held in ... Los Angeles!

Well, it looks like the producers finally found a large theater in peaceful Pasadena with nothing better to do at this time of year. I'm not surprised that Pasadena was not revealed as the city for call-backs. After all, the quiet streets of the Rose Parade city does not have the same level of excitement as last season's call-backs in the bright-lights city of Las Vegas.

I bet someone had to do some fast talking with lots of cash to convince a proper Pasadena hotel to house a mob of super-excited dancing hopefuls, a boatload of television crew members, celebrities, head judge/executive producer Nigel Lythgoe, judge Mary Murphy, aka the Scream Queen, and, of course, a large number of fans.

But on with the show. Several of my favorite dancers from the auditions made it to Pasadena, where a severe test of their talent, technique and tempers was waiting. It was a week filled with new challenges every day, and Day 1 was for individual solos to show all of the judges why they were picked for a ticket to L.A., uh, Pasadena. Along with Nigel and Mary, the guest judges were producer Adam Shankman, Olympic gold medal ice skater Tara Lipinski, All Star Stephen "tWitch" Boss and ballerina Dvorovenko.

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I'm going to say right here that Nigel should think about making Tara a go-to guest judge permanently. She was sharp, knowledgeable, able to give positive, and negative, criticism. On the other hand, Nigel seemed to often act like he knew all about everything and no one else did. When three judges, including tWitch, voted to put popper Marie Poppins through, Nigel had a fit. "I'm shocked that my colleagues are putting you through," he told the dancer. "You are going to regret it," he mumbled under his breath to the others. When tWitch asked why, Nigel said that lots of other dancers would say that they should go through because they also had something special, but, you know, no one else did. Deep breath, Nigel, and take off that crown.

My favorite moment was not an actual dance. The first round of choreography was hip-hop, and a dancer named Jessica said she didn't know hip-hop at all but that she picked her partner, Marcquet, because he would -- he was black. When told that Marcquet was a ballroom dancer, not hip-hop, Jessica took responsibility for an embarrassing moment. As it turned out, the pair made it all the way through to the Top 20.

There were five rounds of choreography of different styles -- hip-hop, jazz, ballroom and contemporary -- over three days with dancers copying the work of choreographers and dancers from previous seasons, the number of dancers, many of them in tears, was reduced to 50. Finally, all left were divided into groups of five and told to create choreography to a CD each group picked randomly. Some groups worked really well together, while others were a disaster. One group, One Love, was given an order by Nigel: decide who would go home since their dance was such a disaster. In the end and with buckets of tears, the quintet said that they couldn't pick anyone because they all wanted to be there so bad. At that point, Nigel put them through since he admired their loyalty.

The final 44 dancers were asked to do one last, impressive solo, and then the judges mulled whom to keep and who should go home. As a little break in the intensity, host Cat Deeley introduced the four dance crews who would perform on the "SYTYCD" stage, with one being chosen as the viewers' favorite. That crew will dance on the show's finale.

Thankfully, there wasn't a long, overly dramatic announcement, with the dancers walking one by one down a long hallway, that was once the style before the program was shortened to one night a week. And here are the 10 guys and 10 girls who make up the Top 20.

Guys (alphabetically): Girls:

Rudy Abreu Tanisha Belnap

Casey Askew Carly Blaney

Teddy Coffey Jourdan Epstein

Emilio Dosal Brooklyn Fullmer

Zack Everhart Jr. Emily James

Nick Garcia Jacque LeWarne

Stanley Glover Malene Ostergaard

Marcquet Hill Jessica Richens

Serge Onik Valerie Rockey

Ricky Ubeda Bridget Whitman

I'm hoping for big things from the tappers Zack and Valerie, and the two dancers whose stories touched me -- Stanley Glover and Bridget Whitman. We will see next week when the competition really begins. See you next week -- keep dancing.